Seeing Is Believing: Effective Components of Professional Development Training for County Extension Educators on an Innovation Perceived as Risky—Food Irradiation

ABSTRACT: Decades of research have provided evidence that food irradiation is a safe technology that can decrease the incidence of foodborne diseases; however, adoption of this technology has been slow. The purpose of our study was to qualitatively explore the effectiveness of various components of a professional development training on family and consumer sciences county extension educators' understanding of food irradiation. This training included presentations by experts in the field, a tour of a food irradiation research facility and a meat processing facility, group activities, and a computer simulation model. Data were collected using qualitative research methodology through in-depth interviews conducted after the training. Results indicated that those components that allowed participants to visualize food irradiation processes seemed most beneficial to their understanding. Based on these data, implications for practice are discussed.     

Book reviews

International Review of Education -     

Professional Identification of Counselor Preparation Programs

A survey of 521 counselor preparation programs nationwide revealed that most programs with master's or both master's and doctoral degrees have a counseling professional orientation as opposed to psychological or other orientation.     

Laboratory psychomotor skill development using physical and mental practice strategies

Some conclusions This study has demonstrated the feasibility of improving the laboratory performance of freshman chemistry students through planned skill practice activities. However, no differences were found among the specific practice strategies which were employed. Mental practice of laboratory techniques represents the most efficient strategy in terms of the necessary laboratory resources. Although mental practice alone was not expected to be as effective as physical practice, this study’s findings proved to be an exception to the implications of earlier reported literature. However, if one accepts the argument that prior experience with the appropriate apparatus during the pretest experiment and/or high school courses was significant, then this study is consistent with the implications of the proposed model. Thus mental practice, to be fully effective, should be associated with prior experience of the task. Evaluation of such findings should relate to the degree of improvement which was found relative to the investment of student time and laboratory resources in the practice activities. A more detailed discussion of the study is provided elsewhere (Beasley, 1978).     

Use of Live Supervision in Counselor Preparation

This study investigates the use of live supervision in counselor preparation programs. The perceived impact of live supervision on program management and student development are also considered.